Mac Studio review – even the base model is great [Video]

I’ve been working on formulating my Mac Studio review for a couple of weeks, and I’ve finally been able to spend enough time with the machine to share my thoughts about Apple’s most powerful desktop offering.

I’ve had the opportunity to test both the high-end Mac Studio with M1 Ultra system on a chip, along with the entry-level M1 Max base model. The Mac Studio is a good choice for desktop users looking for a solution. The M1 Ultra worth the investment? You can watch my hands-on video walkthrough and see my observations and conclusions. Subscribe to my YouTube channel 9to5MacVisit YouTube to see more Mac Studio-related videos.

Form factor and design

The Mac Studio is a masterpiece of design. The Mac Studio’s bulky chassis is almost as big as three Mac minis, and is neither elegant nor pretty.

Contrary past practices, Apple developed this computer by first identifying what users need in terms of performance, capability, and then sculpting the machine around these parameters. The Mac Studio isn’t an ugly machine, but it’s a clear departure from Jony Ive’s vision of what a desktop computer should look like, and frankly, that’s a breath of fresh air.

That’s not to say that the Mac Studio doesn’t have its thoughtfully designed areas. For example, the unit is just short enough so that it safely fits underneath Apple’s newly-launched 27-inch Studio Display. The unit also has a beautiful intake and exhaust system. The Mac Studio isn’t dead-silent, but it’s quiet enough to where you’ll need to put forth some effort to hear it, even when it’s under considerable load.

Video: Mac Studio review

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I/O

The Mac Studio is Apple’s only computer to have more than four USB C ports. All USB-C ports on the M1 Ultra machine are Thunderbolt 4 ports. This proves extremely useful for those who like me are deeply immersed in Thunderbolt.

Cheaper M1 Max-enabled Mac Studios lack the necessary bandwidth to have six Thunderbolt ports, relegating the front two ports to “10Gbps” USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports instead. For me that’s disappointing, but for the majority of people, four Thunderbolt 4 ports + two USB 3.1 ports provides more than enough USB-C I/O.

The UHS-II-enabled SDXC slot is located next to the front-facing USB C ports. This card slot is ideal for people who frequently offload videos and photos from digital cameras. Although SD cards aren’t nearly as fast as something like CFExpress, a storage medium that many modern cameras use, SD cards remain far more prevalent. Many of the latest cameras, which can capture 8K video, allow you to directly save your SD Card.

I’ve recently been testing Canon’s R5c hybrid mirrorless camera, and it features an updated HEVC codec with a very reasonable 540Mbps data rate. This data rate is ideal for V90 SD cards. Wise has just released a V90 offering, which can hold up to 512GB of 8K video. It is the largest V90 card available. Stay tuned, because in an upcoming post and video I’ll be discussing why the R5c is such an amazing camera and an ideal Mac Studio companion.

You wouldn’t be crazy to think that you were looking at the back of an Intel Mac mini when looking at the rear of the Mac Studio. The type of I/O is identical to the Intel Mac mini’s back, except for the arrangement of its ports. Mac Studio has four Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports at the rear, one 10GbE port and two USB-A ports. There is also a HDMI 2.0 port and a 3.5mm headphones output.

Unlike the Mac mini, 10GbE comes standard on all Mac Studio machines, which is great for connecting to NAS boxes, or even something like Blackmagic Design’s newly introduced Cloud Store. Although 10GbE is slower than Thunderbolt, it can travel longer distances. Whole networks can be built around it.

In my case, I have my Mac Studio connected to a TP-Link 10G Unmanaged Ethernet Switch, Synology NAS with 10GbE card, and a 5Gbps AT&T Fiber Internet connection. What’s great is that all of these networked components reside in another area of the house away from my office, meaning that I don’t have to worry about the noise emanating from the Synology NAS when a Time Machine backup decides to run.

Of course, I can’t forget to mention one of the biggest I/O benefits of the Mac Studio when compared to M1-based machines. M1 Mac mini only supported one Thunderbolt display with 6K resolution. The Mac Studio supports four 6K Pro DisplayXDRs and five 5K Studio Displays concurrently. The Mac Studio can connect to up to five displays simultaneously, including a 4K display via HDMI.

Performance

I’ve tested both the base model Mac Studio and a much beefier M1 Ultra model featuring a 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 128GB of unified memory, and 1TB SSD. I have lots of thoughts about both machines, but one of the talking points you’ll likely hear around the tech world is how the M1 Ultra is a bad value.

This is a common saying that rings true in certain areas. Take, for example, 9to5Mac’s Miles Somerville put both machines to the test for video editing and found that while the M1 Ultra yielded slightly better export and render times in Final Cut Pro, the differences for his workflows weren’t nearly commensurate to the $2,000+ price difference.

Built-to-order Options

This is where the fun begins. Just like any other thing, your workflow and individual needs will dictate whether you upgrade any build-to-order components when configuring Mac Studio.

Here are my main observations after testing these two machines back to back, spoken primarily from a video editor’s perspective, but also touching other areas. First and foremost, I’m glad that Apple opted to give users 32GB of unified memory as a starting point. 16GB is just not enough memory for a desktop computer, and you’ll quickly start running out of memory and swapping out to the much slower SSD with just a few apps open. If you edit video, especially higher resolution 6K or 8K workflows, you’ll start swapping out to disk as soon as you open some Final Cut projects.

This is it saidIf you have 64GB of unified storage, 64GB is my recommendation. You can afford the extra charge and b. Backorders for build-to-order configurations can cause you to wait up to six months or even longer.

I’ve always noted that storage is really the only thing that’s “upgradable” on modern Apple computers, because of the existence of Thunderbolt connectivity. In the past I was quick dismissing internal storage upgrades as too expensive when compared to external media.

Depending on your work, upgrades to internal storage should be considered on Apple Silicon. If you regularly work with huge files – 3D rendering, video editing, etc. – then you should consider upgrading internal storage if you can afford it.

I don’t think most people truly appreciate how utterly fast Apple’s internal storage is, and how much of an impact it has on overall system performance when working with large swaths of data. In addition to being able store more files, a larger SSD also makes it faster. At any rate, the speed of Apple’s internal SSD will more times than not run circles around external media. Even most Thunderbolt SSDs won’t be able to compete unless you delve into some of the really expensive NVMe-based RAID setups, and comparatively, Apple’s $2,400 asking price for the 8TB SSD is pretty competitive.

If you haven’t noticed, the machines that Apple uses to benchmark the Mac Studio’s ability to handle multiple streams of 8K Pro Res video feature 8TB of specced out storage. I don’t believe this is a coincidence, because brutally fast storage is essential when you start moving a dozen and a half streams of 8K video at the same time. Apple claims that the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra can play back 18 streams of 8K Pro Res422 video simultaneously. My Mac Studio also has the CPU and GPU credentials. However, my 1TB storage caused the playback of the last four streams to drop below real-time levels during my testing.

While basic video workflows won’t see huge gains when upgrading to the higher-specced version of the Mac Studio, trudging through more demanding work, such as editing feature-length films with multiple streams of 8K video, will definitely benefit from the more powerful build-to-order configurations There’s also the matter of machine learning tasks, which apps like Final Cut Pro are becoming more reliant on. With its 32-core Neural engine, the M1 Ultra will be able execute motion tracking and voice isolation operations in Final Cut Pro 10.6.2 faster.

But obviously the Mac Studio wasn’t just made for video. Application developers will benefit from the reduced compile times made possible by the M1 Ultra’s 20-core CPU, while training ML models using platforms like TensorFlow stand to benefit from the additional GPU cores. These are not my area of expertise but I was able see tangible benefits running tests across both disciplines.

9to5Mac’s take

These are the people who should consider buying the Mac Studio:

• Apple mini users seeking more I/O, and power
• Apple Silicon users who work with Mac Pro
• Apple users also looking for an all-in-one desktop solution

The base Mac Studio is an excellent overall computer, and it’s a huge improvement over any M1 Mac Apple sells. It features way more I/O than either of the other Apple Silicon-powered desktop options, runs quieter than any of the company’s laptops, and features relatively generous specs for the $1,999 base model.

One of the main downsides of the Mac Studio is that, like the Mac mini, you’ll need to already own a display or purchase a display. Of course, this unit pairs perfectly with Apple’s new 27-inch Studio Display, but that adds another $1599 on top of the purchase price. The M1 Pro 14 inch MacBook Pro is an excellent option if this is not possible. It is very powerful and has a screen that is comparable to the Studio Display in many tangible ways. Or wait for the Mac mini with M2-powered processor to arrive later in 2014.

While the Mac mini may be more niche, the Mac Studio is very usable. Just add a display, keyboard, and mouse, and you’re good to go. It would be a lot more professional if it came in black.

What do your thoughts about the Mac Studio Are you planning to buy one? Comment below with your thoughts.

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